Nathan Charles and Luna Fang: Into the Dragon Realms
by Mutitoon90
Summary: A disruption in the portal's gateway allowed a dinosaur-like wizard that is known as Ripto and his over-sized underlings to arrive onto Wumpa Island. After the wizard's self-proclamation as the ruler of the island, Ripto cursed Luna, but the werewolf's blood keeps her awake for a time. Now, Nathan, Crash and Luna pursued after the wizard into a magical realm before it is too late.
1. Chapter 1

Nathan Charles and Luna Fang: Into the Dragon Realms

By Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter One

As the half-eatened apple laid on the ground, the brunette girl, who bit into the fruit, was nearby, seemingly lifeless, while the eight beings circled around the young woman. The seven dwaves were trying to keep the girl from receiving any more damage, since she fell out of the wagon, which dislodged from the young woman's throat, and the eighth being picked up the girl as she opened her bright silver-blue eyes and saw the prince that was carrying her at that moment.

A gasp escaped from her lips as she looked at the dark-haired young man with dark red eyes. Soon, the brown-haired maiden's eyes softened to admiration and love. The maiden and the prince closed in on each other's lips, and the seven little people watched, somewhat blushing at the romantic sight.

However, the lips of the prince and the maiden would never reach, when the maiden fell out of bed and straight to the floor face-first.

"Owwwww..." Moaned the girl as she held her face as her wild and messy hair dangled next to her hands and covered face.

Pulling herself to her backside with one hand, the girl still had her right hand to her face, due to the fact that most of the injury was on the right side of her face. Looking around the room for a few moments, she saw that she was alone.

With a loud sigh, the long haired woman said to herself, "Man... I can't believe I've had that 'Snow White' dream again."

Pulling herself to her feet by using her bed and her left arm, the presently red-faced woman looked at her mirror reflection and saw a young woman with long, messy, brown hair with silver-blue eyes in a turquiose tanktop and pajama bottoms with light blue and white stripes and a recent redness to her usually semi-pale face.

"The same thing always happens everytime I have that dream." The blue-eyes female moaned out before turning from her wall mirror and exiting out of her bedroom.

Walking towards the bathroom, the brunette girl was careful not to be loud as she passed her guest's bedroom, which was a door closer to the bathroom. The guest was her cousin on her mother's side of the family, and she did not liked to be awaken prematurely for any reason outside of an emergency.

Finally reaching the safety of her bathroom, the girl started to brush out her wily hair, brushed her teeth and washed her face to clean it and to cool it off to reduce the redness. As soon as she was finished her bathroom routine, a knock echoed into the small room.

"Who is it?" The girl responded to the knocking on the door.

"Luna," the voice of her cousin echoed from the other side of the bathroom door, "how long are you planning on being in there?"

"Not much longer, Sash!" The bruette girl spoke out her reply before exiting the bathroom.

Upon opening the door, Luna saw her cousin, who had long, straight silver hair, bright moon-yellow eyes and two years seniority over the brunette. Sash was wearing red and white pajamas that were striped vertically, like Luna's pajama bottom.

"Well, I guess that you had an unusal dream again, huh?" Sash asked, knowing that Luna would wake up and rise up with the sun, and it was, at least, an hour before sunrise.

"Yep." Luna made no attempt to hide the truth, since Sash could read her mind with hardly any effort, and, even without the mind-reading capability, Sash knew her younger cousin well enough to know why Luna would be up earlier than expected.

"What was it this time?" The young miko asked Luna, "'Sleeping Beauty', or 'Snow White?'"

"Snow White." The brunette blushed, adding more red to her face.

Sash had seen Luna's post-impacted face before the flush of embarrassment came over, and Sash could not help herself from asking.

"So, you fell out of the bed?"

"Big time." Sighed Luna, who blushed once again, before a wide yawn widened the brunette's mouth.

Seeing this from her younger cousin, Sash gave a suggestion to Luna: "Why don't you go back to bed for a few more mintues? It might get you a chance to rest some more before starting your day?"

"I don't know, Sash." Doubt rang in Luna's voice, "I hate to sleep, when I'm already up and ready to do something."

"I hate to say this, but you're right." Sash sighed out, knowing that Luna hated to sit still for a very long time.

"I'll need some time to take a real nap today," Luna's sleepy expression morphed into a carefree smile as she started to throw a few punches in the air, "and I'll be ready to face whatever comes my way."

The foreign priestess covered her mouth gracefully as a silent giggle escaped her lips, knowing that Luna's 'confidence' was a delightful thing to watch when it was appropriate to be displayed and that Luna was being truthful as well.

"Well, if you're that confident in your own strength, I'll let you do whatever you what." Sash stated as she went to the bathroom, "However, I'd take some time now to get some rest before doing anything else."

As the elder cousin entered the bathroom, Luna said, "Thanks for the advice, but I'll be just fine, Sash."

Luna saw the silver locks of her older cousin sway as Sash shook her head, silently hearing Sash muttering about the brunette's restlessness before the bathroom door closed once again.

Luna returned to her bedroom and changed out of her night clothes and into her favorite green T-shirt and blue jeans, and since the outfit lacked shoes with the exception of sandals on occasion, Luna was barefoot. She loved to feel the earth under her bare feet; something primal within the brunette as in all werewolves loved the feeling of the dirt on their soles of their feet. However, she can control her urges to go barefoot, when it was called for it.

Feeling the wooden floor with her feet, the young werewolf ran downstairs and went to the kitchen and started cooking breakfast for her guest and herself. Starting with the native fruit of the island, Wumpa fruit, Luna quarted and sliced five pieces of fruit and placed them into a homemade pie crust, which was made the night before, and covered it with an edible cover before putting it into a pre-heated oven. Turning her attenetion to the bacon that Sash brought over with her, Luna heated the stove, pulled out a frying pan and placed the bacon strips onto the hot pan.

"Oh!" Luna gasped at her own forgetfulness, "I need to get the eggs!"

As Luna went to the refrigerator to get the eggs and other food items that she might need, a pair of green eyes peered from the bushes that covered the window of the kitchen. The eyes looked hungrily at the oven, more interested in the prize that was being baked in the oven.

"Huh?" Luna sensed a presence that she could not see and started looking around. However, by the time the wolfgirl's attention was on the bushes, the green eyes went into hiding.

"Hmm?" Mused Luna before returning to her cooking and failing to see the green eyes once again.

Before long, the Wumpa fruit pie was finished and needed to be cooled off. Luna knew that the pie needed to cool off before it can be severed to anyone, but she still detected a presence in the area, and she had a strong feeling who it might be, so she came up with a plan to deter the being from entering the kitchen.

The eyes reappeared again and saw the pie being pulled out of the oven, causing the eyes' owner to chuckle a little. However, the laugh nearly caused Luna to catch a glance of the green eyes and their owner.

Minutes passed, and the eyes peered out again; now, they see the pie, the object of interest, seated close to the window. Soon, the pie will be in their owner's semi-gloved hands.

Luna had her back turned to the window as she waited for a certain sound, and it felt like a long time before the sound of the mouse trap setting out snapped into the air and the scream of the would-be thief followed after the first sound.

"I knew it." Luna shook her head as she turned to the pie thief, and she added, "Crash Bandicoot, did you really think I'd be that dumb to allow you to swipe one of my pies again?"

"No!" Crash, a genetically altered bandicoot, replied as he managed to remove the mousetrap off of his fingers, and once the trap was no longer crushing his fingers, he added in a sheepish tone, "I was hoping."

Luna shook her head, knowing that Crash was telling the truth; it was not the first time Crash had tried to take one of her pies, and it was not the first time that the male Bandicoot had failed in stealing one of her pies.

"Go home, Crash." Luna told the orange marsupial, hopful that Crash would listen this time, but that was not going to happen anytime soon.

"Not until the pie is mine!" Crash hopped to his feet, but that was a bad idea on his part, since he was on a small ladder; Crash lost his footing and fell off of the ladder.

"Oh, brother..." Sighed Luna, who knew that something, like that, was going to happen that day, since she usually made a pie for Sash everytime that her cousin came to Wumpa Island.

Then, the doorbell at the front door rang, causing Luna to go straight to the door, but she was careful to bring the pie with her, in case Crash decided to re-enter the kitchen again via the window.

Opening the door, Luna saw Nathan Charles, one of the few humans on Wumpa Island, Coco Bandicoot, who was Crash's younger sister, Aku-Aku, the anicent spirit that guarded the Wumpa Islands, which included Wumpa Island, and Crunch Bandicoot, the newest member of the gang.

"Good morning, everyone." Luna smiled at her friends as she greeted them, "I'm glad that you guys came over."

The others greeted back to Luna as they entered the home of the isle's resident werewolf. Noticing the pie in brunette's hand, most of them knew right away that Crash was nearby and had seen Luna a little earlier. Crunch, however, did not know, so he had to ask.

"Luna, what's with the pie?"

The others heard this and laughed a little, but they could not blame Crunch for asking; after all, he was still getting use to being on an island with Crash Bandicoot and Luna, a pie-making werewolf.

"Crash was spying on my Wumpa fruit pie again." Luna answered the question of the Bandicoot with the robotic right arm, "He wanted Sash's pie."

"Again?" A dumbstruck Crunch asked in his shock, and then he recomposed himself and sighed out a statement: "That Bandicoot's more trouble when he's after something her wants than fighting Cortex."

"No kidding." The werewolf snorted out a laugh; Crunch was correct in his statement, but that was something that she had learned years ago.

"Good morning, everyone." Sash's voice grabbed everyone's attentions, which were pulled towards the stairs.

Sash was wearing her favorite outfit, which was composed of a white, long-sleeved blouse with black skinny pants with matching vest and high-heeled boots. The werewolf's silver hair was even straighter even it was when Luna saw it earlier that morning, and Sash's golden eyes were more open.

"Good morning, Sash." Aku-Aku spoke to the moon mystic, "You look well today."

"Thank you, Aku-Aku." The elder of the werewolf cousins nodded back to the ancient mask, "I can say the same to you and everyone else here."

"Everyone?" Luna spoke up with a playful tone in her voice, having seen Sash a little earlier.

"Luna," Sash responded to her younger cousin, "you're dressed now; so there's no reason for you to pry on person issues, even if it's for a good laugh."

"Okay." The brunette laughed, knowing better than to continue a battle of wits with someone that can read her mind, like Sash could.

The others laughed with the two cousins, but Nathan's laugh was the most quiet, and his smile was the widest of all who were there. Nathan had a good idea why Luna backed off, but without the right evidence, there was nothing that Nathan can do or say about it.

The laughter subsided long enough for the group to hear a clatter echoing from the kitchen, telling them that Crash Bandicoot was in trying to steal the pie again.

"Sash," Luna nervously looked at her silver-haired cousin, "I know you don't care to promote stereotypes, but in light of the current situation..."

"Say no more, Luna." Sash's golden eyes seemed to glow as she spoke, "Sometimes, one has to do what one has to do."

As Sash finished her statement, Crash appeared from the kitchen with a pan on top of his head, and his green eyes are on fire with determination. With his eyes on his prize, the hero of the Wumpa Islands raced to the holder of the Wumpa fruit pie: Luna.

"You want it?" Luna 'asked' the charging Bandicoot, "Then, go fetch."

Luna threw the pie, like one would throw a frisbee, and Crash changed his route to pursue after the flying treat. The Wumpa fruit-obsessed marsupial dashed as fast as he could, and he nearly had the pie in his hand-like paws, when a pair of canine paws pushed him down to the ground, causing Crash to hit the ground face-first.

Sash, in her full wolf form, had the pie tin and some of the crust in her teeth. Carefully, the moon mystic placed the dessert onto the ground and started to eat the pie without changing back to her human form.

"Man, Sash..." Luna started upon seeing the silver wolf's actions, "That's just cold."

Sash stopped eating long enough to lick of some of the orange-red pie filling from her muzzle and said, "Perhaps, but he needs to learn to stop taking the pies, and I need to eating practice."

"Granted." Luna said, knowing that Sash was being truthful about the practice. Also, she wanted to see Crash's expression when the male marsupial looks at Sash eating the pie that he was trying to steal.

The brunette werewolf did not have to wait for long; Crash pulled his face off of the ground, and he saw Sash lapping the filling of the Wumpa fruit pie, causing him to moan out sadly, "That's cruel..."

Sash's reaction was a burp and a statement: "So said the Bandicoot that was trying to steal a pie that was made for me."

Crash wanted to shout out a retrot to the moon mystic, but he knew that Sash was correct, and if that was not enough to wound the Bandicoot's pride, he heard the others laughing out, knowing as well that the silver werewolf was right.

Luna went to the kitchen and grabbed a disposible napkin to give to Sash. When she was out of the kitchen, Sash, who was in her human shape and retained her silver hair and yellow eyes, took the napkin and wiped off the remains of the pie from her lips and chin.

"Thank you, Luna." Sash said as the moon mystic rubbed off the crumbs of the Wumpa fruit pie, "That's what I needed."

"Not a prob." Luna beamed a smile towards her elder cousin, who also added something else to the conversation.

"By the way, that pie was a ninety-five; your best pie as of yet."

The statement caused Luna to smile widely before embracing her cousin and crying a blubbering 'Thank you' to Sash, who started to pry Luna off of herself.

Nathan watched from a distance, knowing well enough to stay back when Luna was acting like crying child, and so did the others. Crunch, however, was just following the others, but he still wanted to ask about Luna's and Sash' s relationship to each other, so he asked the only person that has known the two werewolves the longest.

"Hey, Nathan. What's up with Luna and Sash?"

Nathan, knowing that Crunch has not seen Luna like this, answered with a warm smile on his face, thinking about how the cousins were truly close to each other.

"Well as you know, Crunch, Luna's the last person in the world that would act like this and mean it too, but Sash is her older cousin, who've spent some time here before she had to return to her family shrine in Japan, and she is the only person, besides Luna's parents, that can control her the most, which isn't too often. However, Sash is the one that taught Luna how to cook and make pies, allowing Luna to make the Wumpa fruit pies that Crash is a big fan of, and Luna thinks highly of Sash's opinion of her cooking and baking skills."

"I understand so far," confessed Crunch, who was still a little confused, "but why is Luna acting like a big baby?"

Nathan expected the question, and he was willing to answer it. Breathing in, the ex-Cortex said, "Luna must have reached a high score in Sash's preceptive."

Crunch, perplexed at the response that Nathan had given him, returned his attention to the werewolf cousins, and Luna was drying off her tears after Sash managed to remove the brunette wolfgirl from her person. Crunch did not what to do or say to the female cousins, but he could understand where Luna was coming from; after all, he wanted to please the ones that rescued him from being Neo Cortex's puppet for the rest of his life.

Nathan spoke up once more and announced, "We've got to get to the portal room; Brio's got something going on there."

"Really?" Luna asked, truly intrigued by the dark-haired man's words, "This sounds important."

"It is." Nathan nodded to the brunette werewolf, "Brio's been telling me about a disruption in the portal's coordination system; according to Brio, it's like another portal's trying to merge with ours."

"Sounds like today's gonna be a very interesting day." Luna grinned a smirk as she ran to the door, "Let's go check it out!"

"All right, Luna." Sash said with a motherly smile, "You can go ahead of me after a few minutes; I'll make a bento box to make sure that you don't get too hungry today."

"Okay!" Luna said before exiting out of the door.

Once outside, Luna made sure to wait for the others to show that she was not completely rude, and also, she liked the warm morning sun's rays touching her skin. It made her a little sleepy, but she made sure that she did not doze off; that was the last thing she wanted to do that day.

Minutes passed, and the group came out after Luna, who was nearly asleep at that moment. Nathan saw this and covered a laugh in his mouth upon seeing the sleepy werewolf.

"Ha ha." Luna dryly stated as one of her blue eyes opened to see the human male, "Ready to go?"

"What about breakfast?" Inquired Coco, who was truly worried about the brunette werewolf; Luna was like an older sister to the female Bandicoot.

"Oh, yeah." Luna had truly forgotten about Sash, who was making a bento box for her, since Crash had tried to steal the Wumpa fruit pie. Then, she said to Coco, "Thanks for the reminder."

"You're welcome, Luna." Beamed the youngest of the Bandicoot, pleased that she had helped Luna out, since the resident wolfgirl has helped her out during the first Wumpa Games.

Then, the silver-haired moon mystic emerged from the inside of her cousin's home with a small box that was wrapped in a colorful cloth in her hands. Noticing that Luna appeared to be a little doozy, Sash asked, "Luna, are you sure that you are well enough to go?"

"Positive!" Shouted an annoyed Luna, "I'll catch a nap a little later; as long as I'm doing something, I can make it 'til then!"

"All right..." Uncertainty was caked onto the priestess's words, telling the others that she was worried about her younger cousin. After a moment of worry, Sash gave Luna the box and said, "Enjoy this in good health."

"Always!" Luna's annoyance converted to a polite and warm tone, "I'll see ya later."

"Please be careful, Luna!" Sash shouted out as Luna dashed off to the portal room.

The Bandicoots and Aku-Aku went after Luna, showing the same concern for the brunette she-wolf and leaving Nathan and Sash behind, which gave the moon mystic a chance to ask Nathan a favor.

"Nathan, please keep an eye on Luna; I'm worried that she would put herself in terrible danger due to her lack of sleep."

Nathan was silent for a few moments before asking an unexpected question, "Werewolves can be sleep-deprived?"

"Yes..." Sash growled after hissing out a heavy sigh, "The possible sleep-deprivation can be a dangerous flaw, and others would take advantage of that moment of weakness."

Nathan withdrew himself for a moment; he recalled that his father, Napoleon Cortex, would exploit the weaknesses of everyone that he would encounter, including Nathan himself. However, Luna taught him that it was wrong to exploit others for selfish gains, but she also stated that it was needed when the enemy was a true danger the world; it was a lesson that Nathan would never forget.

"All right." Nathan recomposed himself after the moment passed, "I'll do my best to make sure that Luna stays out of trouble."

"I know that you will, Nathan." Sash smiled gracefully before pulling something from her pants' back pocket, "This is for you."

It was a colorful bag, like the cloth that was wrapped around the lunch box that the moon mystic gave Luna, but it was in a different shape. Nathan took it from the mystic and asked, "What is it?"

"It is something, in case of an emergency." Sash smiled at Nathan before adding, "Of course, this is for something other than Luna and the Bandicoots."

"Understood." The ex-Cortex nodded to Sash before running off and saying, "Good-bye, Sash!"

"I will see you later!" The silver-haired werewolf shouted out to Nathan, who was getting farther from the house. Soon, Sash said to a distant Nathan Charles, "Please, Nathan, protect Luna with all of your heart."


	2. Chapter 2

Nathan Charles and Luna Fang: Into the Dragon Realms

By Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Two

Nathan managed to catch up with the Bandicoots and Luna, who had just reached the portal room and Brio. He wanted to see the disruption in the portal's gateway, and he saw it in two colors: light blue and light purple. The conflicting colors seemed to be pushing each other, like two people would if they were pushing for room on their seat on a public transportation.

"So, this is what you're talking about earlier. Right, Brio?" The former Cortex asked the former ally of the Cortex clan, who answered in a nervous and studdering tone of voice.

"Ye-e-es, Nathan-an-an. It's-s-s b-b-been act-t-ting like this-s-s sinc-c-ce th-th-this mor-mor-morning!"

"It must be pretty bad in theory for you to studder like that." Nathan noticed the speech pattern in his oldest ally's voice, "Tell me what you think might happen."

"I-I-I don't-t-t kno-o-ow! Th-th-that's why-y-y I-I-I'm worri-i-ied!"

"He's got a point." Luna said as she opened her bento box, "Anything from a random creature popping out of the portal to something unimaginable might happen, when the portals merge together."

"Really?!" The three Bandicoots exclaimed as they looked at Luna, who pulled out her chopsticks and started eating some of the food in the box and nodded her head to confirm what she had said.

"Well," Nathan thought a little before speaking, "with the exception of the merging of the portal paths, let's hope that nothing happens."

Each of the others agreed in their own way: Brio nodded his head so fast that he almost looked like a bobble head toy, Crash and Coco looked at each other and turned to Crunch, who just shrugged his shoulders, before Crash went to Nathan, while Coco went to Luna's side, and the werewolf of the group just continued to munch on his boxed food as she nodded in agreement. Aku-Aku, who has not spoken, kept to himself.

Then, an alarm went off in the Stonehenge-like cave, telling all that were in there that a dangerous situation was about to happen in the portal room. The group became very concerned about their well-being as well as each other's safety.

"What the-" Nathan almost exclaimed a curse, when he saw that the portal's pathways were merging with each other.

"RUN!" Luna's shout rang out to the others' ears, telling that the situation was something more powerful and possibly dangerous for them.

Making their way to the opening of the cave that was the portal room, Aku-Aku, the Bandicoots and the male humans followed the female werewolf out of the cave and ducked away from the mouth of the cave. Soon after, the cave glowed with a bright violet light, while the ground shook. Both events lasted for a few moments, but it seemed to be an eternity for the group.

Once the light dimmed and faded and the ground stopped rumbling, the three Bandicoots, the humans and the ancient mask removed themselves from the shrubbery of the island. As they emerged from the plants near the cave, they expressed their concerns and questions to each other.

"What was that all about!?" Crash asked his friends as he pulled a twig out of his red hair.

"I don't know." Nathan shrugged his shoulders in respone to the inquiry, "It was the strangest thing I've encountered yet."

"No kidding." Crunch scratched his head with his organic left hand in response to his own confusion. Then, he added, "We better check it out."

"Right!" Coco agreed in her excitement, "After all, it's something new to us!"

"Still," interjected Luna, who was unsure about the situation, "it could be something very dangerous as well."

Aku-Aku looked at Luna with a dumbstrucked look on his face, and he had to ask a question: "Luna, are you well?"

"Sleep-deprived, but I'm all right for the most part." The wolfgirl grinned at the mask.

"So, that was why you were snacking in the portal room and Nathan didn't rise his voice to you about that." The mask knew that Luna was not allow to eat in the portal room due to the possibilty of the crumbs falling into the machinery.

"However," Nathan pointed out a fact of his own, "we have a situation, besides the rules of the portal room."

"Right." Nodded Luna, who looked at the entrance of the portal room, "We've got to find out what went wrong in there."

"Maybe it's a friendly creature..." Crash was trying to be hopeful about the incident about the portals combining together.

"I wouldn't be so quick to be optimistic so soon." Nathan pointed out to his best friend, who gulped loudly at the ex-Cortex's words.

"I'm going in!" Coco ran from the others, causing those that care about her the most to go after her to try to keep her out of trouble.

"Coco!" Yelled out the young Bandicoot's older brother, Crash, "Get your tail back here right now!"

"Coco, get back here." Crunch also shouted out to the youngest of the marsupials as he pursued after her.

"Luna," Nathan scolded the she-wolf as the group entered the cave, "I blame you for Coco's misbehavior!"

"Don't you blame me for the whole responsibility of Coco's behavior, Nathan Charles!" Furiously responded Luna, who had a tone of one being insulted in her voice, "'It takes a village to raise a child.' Besides, I'm not the only one on Wumpa Island with bad habits!"

"That's true." Nathan replied thoughtfully before he aggressively added, "However, you're the only one that seems to express them the most."

"Looking like it and being it aren't the same thing!" A growl flowed venomously from Luna's throat as she spoke to Nathan.

At that point, Nathan stopped talking to Luna; when Luna was angry, it was a wise idea to let the brunette werewolf be, because if he did not back from her verbally, he would find himself on his back after receiving a punch from Luna.

Then, the group found themselves in the portal room once more, and everything was as they left it, with one exception: the portal's gateway was a tint of violet. The odd change of color caused a conversation among the group of seven.

"Looks like things aren't as bad as we'd thought." Nathan sighed out of relief before he smiled widely at his friends.

"Right!" Crash chuckled out, also relieved that nothing bad had happened in the portal room and to them.

"Man..." A disappointed Coco sadly moaned, "I wanted to meet a new lifeform from another world..."

Luna went to Coco and said in a motherly tone, "Be careful for whatever ya wish for, because it just might come true, and not in the way you'd like it to be."

Nathan agreed with Luna's words, but he had his doubts about Luna's sincerity, since he and Luna had a disagreement moments earlier, but he had nothing much more to say; after all, Luna did point out that Luna was not the only culpit in the developement of the youngest Bandicoot's behavior.

Luna, being an empathic werewolf, sensed the doubt in Nathan's mind, but she chose not to act on it, knowing that it was not the best time to call him out on the doubt. The werewolf was also still a little mad at him for competely blaming her for Coco's lack of self-control, and she knew that Nathan was also sore from the verbal counter that she had given him.

As the group talked to each other, Brio, who was quiet for a good part of the time, noticed something was amiss at the portal's gateway. He saw the someone or something was trying to get through the portal.

"Na-a-athan!" Brio called out to his ally, who looked at him, "Lo-o-ook at the PORTAL!"

Nathan, as well as the others, looked at the vortex of the portal and saw what Brio saw, and they all sensed that something was coming out of the portal.

"All right!" Coco shouted in excitement as she started to run to the portal, but Luna was quick to grab the blonde Bandicoot by the seat of her pants, saying in a stern voice, "Oh, no!"

The she-bandicoot frowned at Luna, because Coco wanted to meet the newcomer, despite the possibility of the newcomer being hostile. The others would have laughed at the sight, but the current situation had their full attention at the time.

Then, the group shattered into two different hiding places; Crash and Crunch nearly flew to a control panel, and they were followed by Nathan and Brio. Aku-Aku went to Luna, who was hiding herself and Coco near the entrance of the cave.

As the divided group looked at the portal, three dinosaur-like beings appeared out of the portal's vortex. One of them was a blue, stood on two legs and carried a huge club. Another one was green, stood on all fours and had a pair of laser cannons strapped onto him. The last one was, without a doubt, different than the first two; he was small in size, wore an attire that was colored marroon and red as if trying to pass himself off as someone important, orange-skinned with one horn and carried something that looked like combination of a scepter and a wand.

"What were you numbskulls thinking?!" The shortest of the trio shouted at the other two in a demeaning manner, "Can't you two do anything right!?"

As she heard this, Coco was realizing why Luna and the others were so worried about her safety. Looking at her friend, Coco asked, "Not a friendly?"

"Big time." Luna confirmed with her friend's question, knowing that sometimes that some people have to learn things the hard way.

Then, they returned to listening to the dinosaur trio, when the smaller of the trio started to express some curiosity towards the portal room. This caused them - the girls - to worry about the well-being of their home.

"Where are we?" The apparent leader inquiried before sniffing the air and making a statement, "The smell is unusual, but there're no dragons here. Good!"

"Uh, no..." Crash stated under his breath; it was not loud enough for the dinosaurs to hear him, but his friends did, and they could not help themselves from agreeing with him.

"Crush!" The imporant-looking creature commanded the blue, winged creature, "Go back and pack my bags! We're moving here!"

Luna was ready to spring into action, but Nathan was the first to directly address the smaller leader of the trio.

"I wouldn't be so quick about making such a declaration just quite yet!" Nathan revealed himself from his hiding place.

"Who are you!?" Anger and fury flowed from the smaller creature's mouth as he asked the dark-haired man.

"I'm Nathan Charles, nee Cortex, and I'm one of the guardians of Wumpa Island and its sibling isles." The young man introduced himself, and then he asked, "Now, who are you, newcomer?"

Luna knew that Nathan exaggerated a little about his importance, but she knew why he did it, especially since the newcomers did not know them very well. Also, Luna sensed that the leader of the three newcomers was very arrogant and had a thirst of power, however she held her place until she felt she was needed, so she would listen until then.

"I am Ripto, your new neighbor and, in very short time," the smaller dinosaur-like bowed in a somewhat mocking manner, "your new king."

This cause the whole group to be in shock with the exception of Nathan, who was familiar with power-hungry people, and Luna, who had detected this earlier, however, all of the allies and friends stayed were they were, until it was the right time to strike.

"I doubt you'd find me and my friends such easy opponents to beat." Nathan boasted, which was something that he rarely did, "However, if you want to find out, give me your best shot!"

"That's fine with me, boy!" The one-horned creature seemed to giggle a giddy tone of voice. Then, he turned to the green dinosaur and gave it a command, "Gulp, shoot him down!"

Nodding to Ripto, the four-legged giant turned to Nathan as the laser cannons charged up for a few moments before firing at the human. Nathan, who had taken the chance to pull out his weapon from his back pocket, activated it and placed a yellow barrier between himself and the electric blasts. As the blasts hit the shield, they were absorbed, and the barrier faded from sight.

"What!?" Ripto was without a doubt surprised at Nathan's counter, but Nathan, having noticed the expression on the smaller creature's face, said, "I'm not done yet."

Ripto's shocked expression became more visible upon hearing Nathan's words, which had an underlining tone that seemed to say, 'Watch this.'

Then, the projectile end of the weapon started to glow, and after a few moments, the glow became electric and shot out at Gulp, who was sent into the portal to be forcefully returned to his world. Nathan, seeing that the green giant was defeated, blew into the smoking end of the weapon.

"How-how can this be!?" Shouted a shocked Ripto, who was able to recover quick enough to also add, "You'll pay for this!"

"Oh, really?" Nathan asked in a mocking tone of voice, "Well, got anything else to fight with, or is that it?"

Luna's laughter busted out of Luna upon hearing Nathan's 'questions,' knowing well enough that a mixture of his past experiences and her own influence were the reasons why Nathan was acting the way he was; the ex-Cortex learned that certain people are easily infuriated.

"CRUSH!" Ripto turned to his remaining lackey, "TURN THAT WHATEVER HE IS INTO MULCH! RIGHT NOW!"

Willing to obey his master, Crush stomped towards Nathan, who lost his balance from the aftershock of the thunderous step, and the blue creature's club was lifted over its owner's head, being readied to destory Nathan.

The club dropped to the ground, but it never touched the ground or Nathan. However, it was kicked into the air, and it landed onto Crush's head, knocking out the behemoth. The one who kicked the over-sized weapon away from Nathan turned to the young man and asked, "You alright?"

"I'll live, Luna." Nathan replied as he saw the offered hand and took it. Upon returning to an upright position, the former Cortex also said, "Thanks for the save."

"No prob." Luna smiled widely at her ally. As fast as it came, her bright smile vanished and was replaced by a serious expression, "Now, we have to deal with the dino-squirt."

"Dino-squirt!?" Ripto was downright outraged as he roared out at the insulting werewolf, "You'll pay for that!"

Without missing a beat, Luna retroted with a mocking grin on her face, "What? You mean you can do more than just yell like a parrot?"

That curt comment caused Ripto to not only become red-faced in fury, but his scepter started to glow as well. That grabbed Luna's attention the fastest, and that was followed by the others' stares.

"I don't have a good feeling about this..." The brunette woman stated as the end of the jeweled wand glowed even brighter.

"I'll show you that I can beat you!" Ripto half-ranted as he pointed the scepter to the ceiling, "I'll put you all to sleep... FOREVER!"

Crash, who heard this, was quick to go to action and charged at the enraged dinosaur. Using his spinning technique, the hero of the Wumpa Islands slammed into Ripto, sending the wizard back to his world.

However, Ripto managed to release his spell before he was returned to his world; the magical blast flew to the direction of Luna and Nathan. Luna, sensing the power of the spell, pushed the dark-haired man out of the way and took on the spell itself.

"Luna!" Nathan shouted as he saw the glowing power engulf the werewolf before the spell's light faded completely.

"It's okay, Nathan." Luna tried to reassure the ex-hier of the Cortex clan, "I'll be all right, so there's no need to worry about little ol' me."

"I have a full right to be worried about you as well as everyone else here!" Nathan countered strongly, "You won't have pushed me to the side if it were something minor!"

A deep sigh escaped her lips before the female werewolf spoke, knowing that Nathan was right, "Well, it's minor to me; that's why I took that curse."

"WHAAAT!?" The Bandicoots and Brio accompanied Nathan in the shout, which caused Luna to covered her sensitive ears.

"Owww..." A moan echoed from Luna's lips; the werewolf knew better than to say the word 'curse' in front of her friends, but it was too late to take it back. So, the female werewolf explained herself.

"As you guys know, I'm a werewolf, and you guys know that I'm more sensitive to certain than most people. Also, being a werewolf allows me to absorb certain spells and curses without feeling too much of the effects, even though some of them would act like an illness."

"Like an illness?" Coco repeated as she processed the information, and then the youngest Bandicoot realized what Luna meant, nearly-shouting out, "It's going to fully affect you, given some time!?"

"Yep." Luna stated in a manner that was like she didn't care about the curse's effects on herself, which quickly got on Nathan's nerves.

"Why are you so damn calm!? Show some damn concern about yourself for once! Don't you know what could happen if you're out like a light!?"

Luna rubbed her ears, which received the full assault of the former Cortex's yelling, as she said, "I'm worried, but why should I run around all over the place, acting like chicken that's about to lose its head, when I could just hop into the portal and go after the guy that's casted the spell on me?"

"You're planning to go after Ripto?" Crash and Crunch asked unknowingly in unison, "By yourself!? That's crazy!"

"Perhaps..." Luna grinned at her friends with a laugh in her thoart, "However, I don't plan on sitting on my tail, waiting for the spell to take full effect."

"Don't know about what I'd do, if it was me," Nathan blushed at his own foolishness, since he should have known that Luna was a woman of action, "however, I can't blame you for wanting to do something in an attempt to free yourself from such a fate. Count me in this endeavor."

"Really?" Luna genuinely asked Nathan before asking, "Why?"

Nathan was quick answer: "You're a very important part of Wumpa Island, especially keeping Tiny from going out of control of bordom, you have many friends and family that'll miss you greatly, and I'm truly concerned about your dad getting his hands on me, if I don't help, at least, to get this curse lifted."

"Understandable." Luna smiled gratefully at the former Cortex, knowing that he was speaking a truth, even if it was not an entire truth.

"Me too!" Crash announced loudly to the group, but it was mainly directed at the brown-haired werewolf, "We would be lost without your Wumpa fruit pies too!"

"Well, thanks for the concern, Crash." Luna said in a false tone of gratitude to the best friend of Nathan Charles, "I'm sure you having your pies is more important than my well-being."

"You really see it that way?" The red-orange Bandicoot looked confused as he asked. With a shift in his mood, Crash beamed a smile, saying, "Wow, Luna! Didn't think you'd be that considerant about me after this morning!"

Hearing this, Luna could not help herself from freeing a heavy sigh; what Crash had said earlier was true, and Luna knew it, but the other hand, which included the question, was also honest. Crash was one of the few living creatures that Luna had problems when it came to her empathic powers, because Crash has a tendency to feel only one emotion at a time and rarely has mixed feelings about anything. Whether it was a result of the experiment with the Cortex Vortex or not, the she-wolf knew one thing for sure: Crash is usually honest about his feelings, and he is not afraid to show it to others.

"Crash," Crunch interjected his perspective into the conversion, "Luna was being sarcastic."

"Really?" Crash asked his fellow Bandicoot, before thinking for a moment and saying, "I really don't think so."

Another sigh flew from the werewolf's lips as she mentally stated in her mind about how 'correct' the expressive marsupial was, nearly stating her thoughts verbally.

Luna was not the only one who had thoughts about Crash's assumption about Luna, which almost showed a truth about the Bandicoot that even Crash did not know about himself: Coco shook her head, hardly believing how dense her elder brother could be at certain times, Crunch also shook his head as he mentally told himself that he needed to talk to Crash about priorities and tact, Brio just sighed, knowing about Crash's past before the stormy night of his escape from Neo Cortex's castle and Nathan smiled, knowing that Crash was only being himself.

Within an hour's time, Luna, Nathan and Crash were ready to depart into the world that Ripto came from, and they were packed for the trip. Nathan had a brown backpack, which held a first-aid kit, a map-making program that he made and designed himself and his spare clothing for the trip. Luna had her forest-green satchel, which had all of the food and water, her extra clothes for the trip, a pair of sandals and a pair of tennis shoes. Crash had an orange backpack, which held only his clothes, and a sour expression on his face.

"Why does Luna have to carry the food!?"

Annoyance was drenched in Nathan's words as he tried to keep himself calm while answering his friend's question-like complaint.

"Because, Crash, you have a bad habit of eating up food when you get the chance, and Luna is the only one that can keep the food out of your reach."

"And I still don't see why that Luna has to carry all of the food!" Crash yelled out, echoing out the words throughout the cave and expressing his frustation towards the fact that Luna was charged with the chore of carrying the food.

"To make sure that the other habitants of Ripto's world wouldn't be able to trick us into eating something we shouldn't." Luna stated both truthfully and sternly.

Nathan sighed loudly and said, "Besides, we need someone that can run fast enough to keep certain creatures from getting the food."

"I can run fast." Crash announced to his companions of the trip.

Making eye contact with each other, Luna and Nathan quietly agreed that they were not going to allow Crash to succed in his attempts to obtain the food. Turning to Crash, they spoke in an unusual unison, "Forget it, Crash, because we're not allowing you to carry the food.

Defeated and outnumbered two to one, Crash fell silent, knowing well enough that both Nathan and Luna were going to stand their ground on the subject. However, he was not going to give up so easily.

"Coco?" Crash's green eyes turned to his sister with a pleading look in his eyes, "Do you think that I shouldn't carry the food?"

"In a word," Stated Crash's younger sister, "Yes."

"I'm hurt..." Hollered Crash, who was trying to pull on the she-bandicoot's feelings, however she was not believing her older brother.

"Forget it, big brother; you're not gonna get me on your side this time."

Looking for some more sympathy, Crash turned to Crunch, who was quick to stop him before the orange Bandicoot could even speak.

"Don't even think about it, Crash!"

Turning to Brio, Crash was only met by rebuff: "Don't ask me for help!"

"Aku-Aku?" Crash turned to the ancient mask, but his attempt was halted by an unexpected person.

"Crash, will you just shut up and accept the fact that you're not trusted with the food in any situation."

Every head turned to the direction of the voice, and all saw Sash wallking towards them. The silver-haired werewolf went to the three that were planning to pursue after Ripto and his underlings, starting with Luna.

"Luna," the concerned cousin of the brunette werewolf asked, "are you sure that you're up to the task at hand?"

"More sure than not!" Luna beamed a smile that said, 'do not worry about me,' and she added, "Besides, I'm more likely than not to catch Ripto before the curse taking full effect on me."

Sash, who was more of a sister than a cousin to Luna, sighed deeply as she knew that there was hardly anything in the whole world that would make Luna change her mind once the brunette makes it up of her own free will. With a bittersweet smile, the moon mystic from Japan hugged Luna tightly and said quietly, "Please, be careful."

"Always try to." Luna winked and smiled, silently telling Sash to have hope for the future.

Sash nodded, knowing that Luna was a grown woman, before turning to Crash Bandicoot, who gulped loudly as his leaf-shaded eyes met with the moon mystic's amber eyes, which showed a stern glare in them.

"Crash, I expect you to be on your best behavior, when it comes to Luna, because if I hear otherwise and believe it to be, I'll be one of your worst nightmares! Is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." Crash rolled his green eyes as he answered the question, which was not a good idea on Crash's part.

Sash, who was the most calm of the group, was outraged by Crash's rudeness towards her as her eyes glowed in her fury. With a loud voice that boomed throughout the cave, the silver-haired she-wolf shouted out, "CRASH BANDICOOT, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO ACT LIKE THAT! NOW, THE NEXT TIME YOU ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME, I WILL ROLL YOUR HEAD TO AUSTRALIA VIA AIRWAY! UNDERSTAND?"

Crash was shaken up by Sash's unusually shouting, and he nodded to confirm that he understood what the moon mystic's words.

Then, Sash's expression changed from fearful to being pleased as she stated, "I'm glad that you understand, Crash."

The orange marsupial grinned nervously as he mentally begged to run off to Ripto's world to distance himself from the moon mystic. Fear was the keeping Crash from running off to the portal's vortex, and it was also the reason that the Bandicoot wanted to leave so badly.

"Is everyone ready?" Nathan inquired to his friends, and each member of the group gave their own answer to the young man.

"Ready to rock and roll." Luna calmly and confidently replied with a wide and sly grin on her somewhat tanned face.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Moaned Crash, who still wanted to stay away from Ripto and his over-sized thugs.

"I'll be on standby to make sure that you three get back here safely." Coco chirped out in her excitement.

"I'll assist her in any way I can." Brio spoke up and overcoming his stuttering at the same time.

"Don't worry about Coco and Brio." Crunch spoke up boldly, "I'll make sure that no one messes with them."

"However," Sash spoke quickly after the burgundy Bandicoot's announcement, "if Crunch's physically strength should fail, Aku-Aku and I shall fend them off with our powers."

"Don't worry about us." Aku-Aku nodded in agreement, "You three have to find Ripto and make him reverse this curse that he placed onto Luna."

"Right. " The trio nodded, knowing that the ancient mask was right, before turning to the active portal.

Nathan faced to swirling vortex of the man-made wormhole. Recalling his allies in the endeavor, the former member of the Cortex clan looked at his best friend, Crash, who looked worried and managed to give a confirming nod. Seeing Crash's head movement, the raven-haired man looked at Luna, the cursed werewolf, and Luna looked back with an expression that seemed to say, 'It's now or never.'

Returning his attention back to the portal's light blue vortex, Nathan's determination was powerful in strength, and he was ready to track down Ripto and make him remove the sleeping curse that he had placed on Luna, who took the spell to protect Nathan.

With a commanding tone of voice, Nathan said to his friends, "Let's go!"

It was very unusual from to have a commanding tone in his words, however Crash and Luna knew that Nathan was ready to go after Ripto. Luna was the first to jump into the portal with a loud "Bonzai" flying from her mouth. Crash followed after Luna after a second to pray for his safety and the safety of his human friends. Nathan was last, making no noise for a battle cry, and he formed no words for a prayer; he just leapt into the wormhole, only knowing that Ripto was at the other side of the portal.


	3. Chapter 3

Nathan Charles and Luna Fang: Into the Dragon Realms

By Mutitoon90

* * *

Chapter Three

The blue-purple vortex was the only thing that the trio saw as they fell into whereever the portal ended. This was all that the three friends could see until they fell out of the wormhole.

First, Nathan landed on his feet and hands and did a roll before stopping his body from continuing. As the dark-haired young man stood up and started dusting himself off, Luna was the next being to exit the portal's vortex and did a few aerial flips before landing next to Nathan. The last one, Crash, just fell out and landed on his face.

"Oh!" Luna groaned as she watched the impact that Crash was involved with, "That's gotta hurt!"

"You can say that again, Luna." Nathan winced as he spoke and watched his best friend stand up after his painful landing.

Then, Nathan and Luna went to Crash, who slowly rose to his feet, and the orange Bandicoo nearly fell down again, but Nathan and Luna grabbed him to keep him from landing on his face.

"Thanks, guys..." Crash moaned out in pain as he grabbed at his injuried face, "Ow..."

"Take it easy, Crash." Nathan advised his marsupial friend as he led Crash to a nearby boulder with Luna's help.

Once on the rock, Crash took a few moments to collect his senses before he looked up at the sky and saw that it had a purple hue in the blue sky.

"Whoa..." The mammal grabbed the humans' attentions, and the two looked up and saw the same thing.

"What's going on?" The human male asked as he continued to look at the sky, while the werewolf commented, "It's not even noon yet."

The sky's odd coloration was not the only thing that caused the trio to be dumbfounded by its sight; the chasm was seemingly gleaming with the grass glowed in the sunlight and small, shiny objects laid on the ground and were sereval feet away from the trio.

"What's with this place?" Crash asked his friends, who only gave him a shrug of their shoulders, and then, the threesome heard something beeping.

"It's Coco." Nathan announced as he rose his arm, which had the watch-like communication device, and pressed a button on the device and said, "This is Nathan, come in."

_"It's Coco."_ The voice of the youngest Bandicoot echoed throughout the high rock walls of the chasm, _"Is everything okay there?"_

"It is." Nathan replied as he looked at his surroundings, "However, that Ripto guy's not nearby from where I'm standing."

_"I don't know if I should call that a good thing or a bad thing."_ Coco sounded confused about the information before changing the subject slightly, _"You three have to had him and his over-sized dum-dums and quick!"_

"Why?" Asked Crash, who was still recovering from his fall.

Nathan smiled, and spoke back to Coco via the device, "Sorry about that, Coco. Crash had a slight accident when he fell out of the portal.

_"That's not news to me."_ Coco's voice echoed out, causing the red-head, orange-furred Bandicoot blush a little.

"She can say that again." Luna muttered under her breath upon hearing the comment made by Crash's sister.

"I heard that, Luna." Nathan's voice reached the werewolf's ears, which changed from human to wolf at that moment, and the sudden change grabbed the males' attentation.

After staring at Luna for a few moments, Nathan pulled himself back to reality and spoke to Coco, "We'll call you, if anything comes up."

_"Will do."_ The voice of the girl Bandicoot announced before Nathan pressed the button to stop the communication between him and Coco.

Then, Nathan confronted Luna about the sudden change in her appearance, and Crash was at Nathan's side in that matter.

"Luna," Nathan started to asked, "didn't you notice something weird with-"

"My ears?" The she-wolf interrupted before answering, "I've noticed."

Crash backed a few feet from Nathan, whose face became red with a heated annoyance as his fury grew in his voice.

"Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"You were busy," Luna answered bluntfully, "and I didn't want to disturb you while you were talking with Coco."

Harshly placing the palm of his hand to his face, the apparent leader of the trio nearly breathed steam through his teeth as he heard this, and then he took a deep breath of cool air to make an attempt to calm himself, knowing that the female werewolf was being truthful.

Soon, the young male was calm enough to talk to Luna without yelling at her, saying, "Okay, I can understand that, but why didn't you freak out?"

"I was surprised when it happened," confessed the female of the group, "but I knew that I needed to stay calm."

A heated sigh slipped from Nathan's lips as he inquiried again: "Do you know why you've transformed?"

Luna closed her eyes in thought for a moment before she spoke her reply to Nathan.

"I don't have an definite answer, however a couple of theories do come to mind."

"A couple of theories?" Crash took his turn to asked a question as he looked at the werewolf, who continued to explain.

"Yeah, but it could be one, the other or, if it's possible, both."

"You're saying that it could be a combination of some of the theories?" Nathan managed to ask while in shock of Luna's announcement.

"That's right." Luna looked seldom as she spoke in her response, "It's eith-"

The werewolf stopping in mid-sentence caused a sense of alarm in the two males, who went to Luna's side, and asked in an unpected and odd unison, "What's wrong?"

Luna's blushing face grew red as the werewolf announced in a sheepish voice, "Something... embarrassing..."

"Embarrassing?" Nathan asked, thinking about what could have cause Luna to became shy all of a sudden.

Crash, however, was amazed, since he rarely saw Luna in such a delicate state, and he could not help himself from freeing a few laughs from his mouth.

Luna's embarrassment was more expressive as her ears folded back against her brunette hair. Freeing a sigh from her lips, Luna smiled a little, showing how withdrawn she was becoming and knowing that Crash and the other residents of the three Wumpa Islands rarely, if not at all, see Luna as an embarrassed person.

Nathan examined the werewolf with his dark eyes, starting with the ears and looked down at her hands, which had claws in place of her fingernails and a noticeable amount of fur on the back of her hands. The human was confused and thought for a moment before he remembered something about Luna.

Pulling out a sharp knife, Nathan looked at Luna with an expression of seriousness and said, "Luna, you better turn around."

If Luna lacked the empathic ability, she would have though that Nathan was going to do something naughty, however Luna knew why Nathan told her to turn her back to Nathan. She pulled the black backpack from her back and sat it close to her side. With a deep sigh, Luna said after a moment of hesitation, "Do your worst, Nathan."

"I promise that I'll try to be gentle." Nathan said as a mild blush appeared on his face. Turning his attention to Crash, Nathan asked, "Can you please turn the other way?"

"Why?" The male marsupial asked, looking a little confused about Nathan request.

"It's for Luna." Nathan summarized how Crash, who was still confused about the situation without the sleeping curse. The dark-haired human was slightly more aggressive as he half-shouted out, "Just turn around."

"Alright! Alright!" Crash obeyed the order and faced away from Luna and Nathan.

Thankful that Crash was out of the way in a sense, Nathan turned to Luna and blushed again, nervous about what he was about to do. Inhaling deeply, the male human composed himself and approched Luna with knife in hand.

Upon reaching the wolfgirl, Nathan gluped loudly as he looked at and lowered himself to the level of his target.

"Nathan," Luna said with a shy tone of voice, "get it over with; the sooner it's done, the sooner we don't have to deal with it anymore."

"Okay." Nathan nodded before gulping again and preceded to the task at hand.

Then, the sound of cloth being ripped was heard by all three members of the group, and it lasted for a few seconds.

"It's over." Nathan announced as he rose to his full height, and he looked at the hole he had in the seat of Luna's pants.

"Thanks, Nathan." The blushing brunette grinned sheepishly as she spoke, and then she said to the human male, "You might wanna look away." The grin changed from sheepish to wolf as Luna teasingly added, "Of course, if you wanna look, I've got no problems with that."

Hearing the comment made Nathan's blush glow neon-red before he quickly turned his eyes away from Luna, who used her hand to manipulate her tail out of the hole.

Once she was done, Luna spoke to Nathan, saying, "You look now."

Looking at the werewolf, whose long, somewhat-fluffy tail was wagging, Nathan sighed out as he noticed Crash looking at Luna.

"Wow, Luna!" The male Bandicoot exclaimed upon seeing the wolfgirl's tail, "I didn't know that your werewolves can have tails in their human forms!" Then, he turned to Nathan and asked him, "Did you know that werewolves can grow tails while as humans?"

Nathan was a little surprised by the question before remembering that Luna was careful in exposing her beastly form to others, even if they were beings that have to hide themselves from the world, like herself.

Nathan looked to Luna, who was also looking at him, and the both of them shared a silent joke and a giggle. That confused Crash even more.

"What's so funny?" Asked the confused Bandicoot, and he got his answer, even though it was not what he wanted.

"We'll tell you later." Luna freed another giggle before clearing her throat and said, "We better get going; we've wasted enough time."

"Hey!" Crash looked at Luna, who picked up the pack with their food in it, "What about why you're changing!?"

"I'll explain as we walk." Luna declared as she walked to the opening the chasm.

The males looked at each other and sighed in defeat, knowing that Luna was right, before going after the she-wolf. They got the explaination once they had caught up with Luna.

"Now, explain." Nathan demanded the werewolf, who was about to say something before the dark-haired man give the command.

"As I was about to say, Nathan," Luna eyed the man, who withdrew for a moment, before resuming the explaination, "I only know two things that could cause werewolves to change against their will, that is if they have that ability. One is a special kind of jewelery, but I don't wanna talk about that. Ugh! The other thing is the realm itself, if it's magical."

"If it's magical?" The males asked as they looked at each other in their confusion.

"That's right." Luna announced with a nod as her speed nearly quicken in pace, "And since I'm not wearing anything around my neck, the realm's the only thing left."

"Makes sense, but there's something that causing me to think that something more to the realm than it just being a magical realm." Nathan announced his doubt.

"How can a realm be magical?" Crash flatly asked Luna, who was quick to anwser.

"It would be the residents, but I don't know of any kind of being that would be able to enchant a land."

Nathan fell silent for a few moments to think about the events that had transpired within that day. When he was done thinking, he voiced out his thoughts.

"Have you ever since a creature like Ripto before today, Luna?"

Luna took a turn at being deep in thought before saying in response, "Never, according to my memories, and it's possible for other creatures that I've never encountered before to exist."

"Right." Nathan nodded in confirmed the werewolf's thoughts, "Now, have you ever heard of a creature like Ripto?"

"Not in my lifetime." Luna answered after a few moments of thought.

"So, what are we going to expect to face?" Crash asked Luna, who gave the Bandicoot a harsh look before responding to the question.

"I don't know, Crash."

The trio talked and walked about their situation, when a small dragonfly saw them. It became curious about the three and flew after them, only buzzing quietly as it followed them.

Its eyes were like a human's, and it had a mouth that could speak. It looked at the three friends carefully, making sure that it wasn't seen by the trio.

However, the glowing dragonfly's attempts at being unseen was nearly became in vain, since Luna's sensitive ears picked up the sound of the insect's buzzing. The werewolf stopped and turned to the creature's direction, and the dragonfly flew into some tall grass that was nearby.

"Luna," Crash asked the she-wolf, as he stopped with Nathan, "what is it? Is something wrong?"

"I don't know." Luna answered without look at at the Bandicoot or the human male, "However, I think we're being followed."

"Are you sure?" Nathan expressed his doubt to Luna, who glared that the young man before giving a response that was almost a yell of a person that was insulted.

"See the ears? They aren't up there for cuteness; they're as real as the tail and plenty sensitive to noises and sounds. So, yes; I'm positive about hearing something."

"Yeesh!" Nathan backed from the she-wolf as he spoke, "Sorry about doubting you."

"You better be." Growled an annoyed Luna, who soften her expression as she smiled sweetly at Nathan before saying in a tone that matched the grin, "Sorry about getting mad; I've never liked it when people doubt me, especially if they're someone I like."

"Uh," Nathan was a little surprised by Luna's sudden change in attitude, "apology accepted?"

"Thanks!" Luna was gleeful as her smile widened before she embraced him and spun him in a circle before letting him go, leaving Nathan a little dizzy and dazed by the action.

"Luna's happy once more." Chuckled Crash, who had the good sense to step away from the werewolf as she hugged Nathan.

As the three were distracted by each other, the glowing dragonfly flew from its hiding place and away from the three friends. However, its departure failed to escape the notice of Luna, who saw its bright, yellow glow in the sky.

"So, something _was_ following us." The werewolf mused herself at the thought of the small creature following her and her friends.

The other two also saw the retreating insect, and Nathan smiled weakly as he sincerely apologized for doubting Luna: "I'm really sorry, Luna."

"Nathan," Luna grinned at the dark-haired boy, "you're cute when you apologized."

The human male blushed as Luna made that statement, causing Crash to laugh loudly.

As the trio resumed their journey, the yellow dragonfly flew and rode the wind as fast as it could until it reached its destination, which was sitting nearby a crystal-clear pond.

"Hey, Sparx!" A voice caused the dragonfly to see a purple dragon with yellow and orange horns and wings that was speaking to it, "Where've you be, buddy?"

The insect buzzed out its report, explaining and describing the trio's appearances to the dragon, who listened intensely, and when the dragonfly finished talking about the trio, the dragon spoke again.

"Really? They sound weird, espeically the girl with the animal ears and tail."

Sparx buzzed in agreement about the female and moved its body in a nodding fashion.

"Let's check them out, Sparx!" The dragon flipped his wings excitingly, "We better make sure they're not gonna cause too much trouble around here!"

Sparx looked at the dragon with a doubting look in his eyes and on his face; he knew the dragon better than most others do.

"Aw, come on, Sparx!" The purple creature noticed the dragonfly's expression, "It's true, and it's been a little boring after our last adventure.

Still glaring at the dragon, the yellow creature let out a buzzing sigh as its body moved like a head facing downward in defeat; the dragon was right.

"No more complaints?" The dragon asked before saying, "Good! Let's go!"

The two creatures, the dragon and the dragonfly, ran off to see and meet up with the three beings that Sparx had seen a short time ago. They dodged ponds and the streams, and the dragon jumped over many of the bodies of water before finding the three beings.

As the duo found the trio, they saw that the two males and the female were aguring with a bear that was dressed in a gentleman's black jacket with a dress shirt underneath it and wore a monoicle over its right eye, and it was over the right to pass an old bridge. The duo shook their heads, knowing the bear's true intentions.

"Will Moneybags ever learn?" The dragon whispered to the smaller dragonfly, who buzzed negatively in its agreeing reply.

The two knew the bear named Moneybags for a few years and were familiar the bear's attempts at obtaining large amounts of the world's currency to his love of it. They were some of his finanical victims.

"We have to pass!" Nathan repeated himself to the bear for the tenth time since the bear made its first and only offer, and once again, the human said to the blocking bear, "We just don't have the fee to pay you."

"I'm sorry, sir." The bear politely and greedily refused before explaining, "It's merely business, since its my bridge."

Nathan growled loudly, but the only thing that calmed his fury was the artful smile of Luna, who could tell that the humanoid bear was lying, and Nathan smiled back at Luna.

Nathan knew that Luna had a personal rule about liars; she would allow the person producing the falsehoods to fib three times before making that person feel her fury. Nathan grinned, thankful that the werewolf was an empathic being.

Luna was pleased to see Nathan's grin, but was a little disappointed that the greedy bear had only lied one time. However, she was a paitent creature and knew that the bear would make the two mistakes of lying to her and her friends.

Then, a female voice filled the air as a single word reached the ears of all of those at or near the old bridge.

"MONEYBAGS!"

Then, a flying rainbow-colored ray flew in the purple-hued sky and headed towards the trio and the bear, and the four individuals ran from where the rainbow was going to land. On the impact to the ground, the beam took the form of a butterscotch-shaded rabbit with some human features wearing a toga-inspired beige dress with matching boots and a purple-red cape that draped down to her ankles.

"Moneybags!" The female rabbit growled at the bear, who was cowering at that point, as she scolded him, "Don't you dare con them out of their gems, like you've been doing for the last couple of days! You know very well that this bridge is too worn out to be crossed on!"

"No one's fallen through yet!" Moneybags defended himself from the rabbit's accussations, "Besides that, I honestly didn't know that the bridge was not functioning as a proper pathway." Then, he turned to the trio and started begging, saying, "You three have to believe me!"

Hearing that, Nathan and Crash, who knew that Luna's low tolerance for people who would lie to obtain their selfish needs as well as learned that the hard way, turned the female werewolf and saw two fingers on the female's hand. That told them that Moneybags had one more lie to tell before Luna would punish him from making falsehoods to the three of them.

"What are you three grinning about?" Moneybags demanded the three friends, who were smiling at their shared joke and did not reveal it to the bear.

"They're the least of your problems right now, Moneybags!" The stern rabbit announced to the avaricious ursine, who returned his attention to her.

"What could be more troubling than being cheated by these three vagabonds?" Inquiried the fine-dressed bear, earning the annoyance of Nathan and Crash.

Luna, however, was not affected by the insult; to the werewolf, it was the attempt of a wealth-driven creature that did not liked beiing denied the gems he desired.

"There have been sightings of Ripto and his lackeys around here, and they've been causing trouble around here!" The she-rabbit responded strongly to the question, "And I know for a fact that you don't need a reminder of the trouble Ripto can cause, when given enough time."

"It's still not my problem." Moneybags crossed his arms and shook his head, refusing to accept the rabbit's words.

"This is getting more ridiculous by the minute..." Nathan moaned upon hearing the bear's response to the rabbit's warnings.

"No kidding..." Muttered Crash, who agreed with the human male about the bear's greed.

Luna, who was willing to harmfully punish the bear for lying, was thinking of a way to get back at Moneybags for calling her and the guys 'vagabonds' earlier. Looking at the aged and rotting bridge, the werewolf flashed a toothy grin, which told everyone that saw it that she was up to something.

"Hey, Sparx." The dragon whispered to his insect friend, "Do you think she's up to something?"

Sparx buzzed in agreement and said something about the situation that was unfolding itself in front of them.

"Yeah, let's just hope that whatever she's up to is going towards old Moneybags." The purple creature spoke to the dragonfly as the duo returned their attention to the trio, the bear and the rabbit.

Luna, the werewolf, quietly and smoothly went to Moneybags, who was still in the middle of the arguement with the female rabbit, and Nathan and Crash saw this. The males carefully went into the cape-wearing female's sights.

"You still don't understand the seriousness of this situation, Moneybags!" The she-rabbit shouted at the slightly taller bear, who started a long, drawn-out retrot.

The female that was arguing with Moneybags failed to hear the ursine's words, and she saw the males mouthing, 'Back off,' to her and moving their hands in a pushing motion. She got the message and nodded to them, and it was before the bear, who was not paying attention to her and the trio, finished his lengthy speech of why he was not worried about the dinosaur wizard, Ripto.

"Do you understand me, Miss Bianca?"

"Completely." Bianca, the rabbit girl, answered with a cunning gleam in each of her blue eyes.

"Well," a pleasantly surprised Moneybags spoke before beaming with a prideful glow, "I'm glad that you're able to see that I'm not just sitting around on my duff, making things more difficult for everyone."

Then, a growling roar caused both the bear and the rabbit to whip their heads to a huge, wolf-like creature with sharp fangs and claws. This creature's sudden appearance caused Moneybags to ran away, using the old bridge as a path of escape.

Once at the other side, the ursine looked back at the other side of the bridge and saw the creature snickering at him as it changed into its real form: Luna!

"Why, youuuuu!" Growled an enraged Moneybags as he saw Luna's smug expression and the other three laughing at him for fleeing from the female girl.

The furious bear stepped onto the bridge, trying to reach Luna to get after her. However, the bridge collapsed almost instantly, and Moneybags nearly went down with the bridge. This caused more laughter from the other side of the bridge as Luna joined the laughter as well as two others.

"I was wondering when you two were going to show yourselves." Luna giggled as she looked at the dragon and the dragonfly rolling in the grass.

"Spyro! Sparx!" Bianca gasped upon seeing the duo, "What are you two doing here?"

Spyro, the dragon, managed to stop laughing to speak with her, saying, "Sparx told me about these three, and I wanted to see if they were trobule or not."

"Really?" Luna asked in a thoughtful tone in her voice, "That's very interesting."

Nathan and Crash quietly agreed with the werewolf upon seeing the yellow dragonfly again.

Then, the she-wolf looked at her friends and asked them about the changes in the current situation of being in that world.

"So, that explains the magic that caused my ears to change and my tail to appear. So, what do you guys think about the dragon?"

"Dragon!?" Nathan exclaimed loudly, but Crash was confused and felt compled to ask, "What's a dragon?"

Luna smiled as she said, turning the Bandicoot's attention to the creature that was called Spyro, "That purple, scaly creature is a dragon. Although, I'd expected my first encounter with one would be a little different."

"What do you mean, Luna?" Asked Crash, who was looking at Spyro to see what was wrong with the purple and yellow creature.

"Well, I was expecting the first dragon I've ever might to be larger, but I guess the size might be something involving evolution." Luna confessed to her male companions, "Also, it could be that this dragon's young, but to what extent is something I could learn while being here."

"Hey!" Spyro's voice caused the trio's heads turn towards the dragon, "I can hear you three over here!"

"Sorry about that." Nathan stepped towards the purple creature, "We're still debating whether or not that we can trust you."

"Really?" Spyro said, looking surprised, "So are we!"

"Looks like we're starting off a misplaced foot." Nathan spoke thoughtfully as he examined the purple and yellow creature with his eyes.

"Nathan," the wolfgirl nuged the human with her elbow, tickling him a little, "don't be so serious about things."

"Luna," Nathan glared at the female werewolf after recovering from the brush of the female's furry forearm, "you're the one who should be serious; after all, you're the one that got cursed by Ripto."

"WHAT!?" Spyro, Sparx and Binaca shouted in unison, expressing their combined shock, and then Spyro recovered himself and asked, "You guys fought Ripto?!"

"In a sense." Crash smiled shyly, unsure how to react to the dragon's question.

"Crash," Luna smiled at him as she spoke, "I believe introductions are in order."

"That's sounds reasonable." Bianca agreed with the werewolf before starting the introductions by saying, "I'm Binaca."

Then, the dragon followed the example of the rabbit's action.

"I'm Spyro, and this is Sprax."

The dragonfly buzzed as it moved in a nodding action.

Luna smiled sweetly and responsed to the introductions, "The name's Luna Fang, but I go by 'Luna.'"

"I'm called Crash Bandicoot or Crash." The orange marsupial smiled sincerely as he spoke.

"I'm Nathan Charles." The human spoke before asking, "What do you about Ripto?"

"We've dealt with him before." Spyro's voice was caked with arrogant tone, "I've torched him a couple of times."

"Good to hear." Nathan stated to the dragon, apparently annoyed with the cockiness of the dragon, "Can you help us with him?"

"We can." Binaca voiced in agreement, and then she asked, "Why are you after him?"

"It's a bit of a long story." Nathan stated before Crash chimed in, saying, "But we don't mind telling it."

Nathan was upset at Crash's sudden acceptance of the dragon, and Luna only giggle upon hearing Crash interjecting the promise to inform Spyro, Sparx and Bianca about their current situation. The two humans knew for a fact that they needed help.

"We can tell you what happened." Nathan announced to the three that had encountered Ripto before he had.


End file.
